There is concern over the costs of providing services to improve the health and independence of the nation's elderly. Interventions that improve health are also evaluated in terms of the resources needed to do so. This research core aims to continue to advise and work with the other projects and trainees of the center on the methodological issues and problems specific to the design and statistical analysis of studies of interventions, assessment of their immediate and longer-term outcomes, preferences, and costs. We aim to maximize the validity and value of those studies through the application of appropriate state-of-the-art statistical methods. In the assessment of outcomes and preferences, these issues include a) how to collect health status and preference information from individuals with sensory and cognitive limitations: b) the inclusion of health states relevant to older persons;and c) scaling properties that make some instruments less relevant to older persons. For the long term effects of immediate outcomes these include a) extrapolation of data from younger populations b) appropriate modeling and weighting of future effects. In cost effectiveness, these issues include a)hpw to collect costs of the services delivered to older persons in a variety of settings;b) inclusion of "out-of-pocket" health costs for services such as nursing home care;c) indirect costs incurred by patients, family or other caregivers;and d) the valuation of preferences and utilities. The specific aims are: 1. To provide technical support in research design and statistical analysis, in measurement of health, utility and costs, in modeling long-term health consequences, and in cost-effectiveness analyses. a. For OAIC Career development awardees and junior clinician scientists, b. For OAIC pilots and OAIC projects, c. For new RAND and UCLA projects that meet the UCLA OAIC mission and goals. 2. To work with the Research Operations Core (ROC) to provide training on these topics and to ensure, when appropriate, the needed data for cost analyses are collected and are of high quality. 3. To assess the cost-effectiveness of the interventions studied in the OAIC and supported by the A/CEC that improve health. 4. To examine new approaches to cost-effectiveness analysis in geriatrics and gerontology.